Region // 19 files

Europe

The old continent has been investigating since the 18th century: historic beasts in royal archives, big cats on English moors, alpine worms and spectral black dogs. Its files are old, documented — and often surprisingly serious.

• Case file Nº026 1933

  Loch Ness Monster

  Aquatic / 57.30°N 4.44°W

  The world's most famous lake monster: founding photo confessed a hoax in 1994, the loch DNA-surveyed in 2019 — no unknown animal found.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº034 1750

  Selma

  Aquatic / 59.47°N 8.72°E

  The serpent of Norway's Lake Seljord: sightings since 1750, sonar hunts that found nothing, and a place on the town's coat of arms.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº035 1635

  Storsjöodjuret

  Aquatic / 63.12°N 14.37°E

  Sweden's Great Lake monster: recorded in 1635, hunted in 1894, legally protected 1986-2005 — and never shown to exist.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº036 1975

  Morgawr

  Aquatic / 50.13°N 5.03°W

  Falmouth Bay's sea serpent, famous for the 1976 'Mary F' photographs — a case entangled with the hoaxes of Doc Shiels.

  Class 3

• Case file Nº037 1345

  Lagarfljót Worm

  Aquatic / 65.20°N 14.41°W

  Iceland's glacial-lake serpent, first recorded in the annals in 1345; the viral 2012 video was shown to be a stationary object.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº041 XIIIe siècle

  Kraken

  Aquatic / 66.00°N 5.00°E

  The Norse sea monster whose real core is identified: the giant squid Architeuthis, described in 1857 and filmed alive in 2004.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº070 1976

  Owlman

  Aerial / 50.10°N 5.09°W

  An owl-man reported by Mawnan church, Cornwall, in 1976; an escaped eagle-owl or a hoax remain the strongest explanations.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº071 1992

  Beast of Bodmin Moor

  Phantom cat / 50.55°N 4.62°W

  A dark phantom cat reported on Cornwall's granite moor since 1992; a six-month government inquiry found nothing verifiable.

  Class 3

• Case file Nº072 Années 1970

  Beast of Exmoor

  Phantom cat / 51.14°N 3.63°W

  A phantom big cat blamed for killing a Devon farm's sheep in 1983 — hunted, without result, by Royal Marines marksmen.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº073 Années 1960

  British big cats

  Phantom cat / 52.56°N 1.46°W

  Thousands of exotic-cat sightings across Britain: a few genuine captures on record, but no established population ever proven.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº074 Folklore ancien

  Dobhar-chú

  Aquatic / 54.37°N 8.37°W

  Ireland's « water hound » — a giant, aggressive otter of lake folklore, its one famous attack recorded on a 1722 gravestone.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº075 XVIIIe siècle

  Tatzelwurm

  Critter / 47.05°N 10.50°E

  The Alpine « worm with claws »: a stubby, cat-headed reptile of herders' tales since the 1700s — never caught, once faked on film.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº076 1764

  Beast of Gévaudan

  Entity / 44.93°N 3.49°E

  The Gévaudan attacks of 1764-1767 killed about a hundred people — historical fact; only the animal's identity is still debated.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº077 1577

  Black Shuck

  Entity / 52.46°N 1.44°E

  East Anglia's spectral black dog, a folkloric death omen made famous by the deadly storm at Bungay and Blythburgh in 1577.

  Class 1

• Case file Nº078 1802

  Beast of Dean

  Critter / 51.77°N 2.55°W

  The huge « moose-pig » reported near Parkend around 1802 — best read as an outsized wild boar, in a forest boar now roam again.

  Class 4

• Case file Nº079 Années 1990

  Beast of Buchan

  Phantom cat / 57.53°N 2.00°W

  A black big cat reported for decades across Buchan's farmland in north-east Scotland — persistent testimony, no physical proof.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº080 Années 1990

  Beast of Dartmoor

  Phantom cat / 50.58°N 3.92°W

  The black big cat reported on Dartmoor since the 1990s — the newest layer on England's most legend-laden moor, never proven.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº090 XIXe siècle

  Wolpertinger

  Critter / 48.14°N 11.58°E

  Bavaria's taxidermy chimera — a hare with roebuck antlers, wings and fangs — openly manufactured since the 19th century.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº096 1973

  Sandown Clown

  Entity / 50.66°N 1.16°W

  In 1973 two children on the Isle of Wight described meeting 'Sam', a clown-like figure never seen again — a one-off case file.

  Class 1